Saudi Arabia: Section 2 - Market Overview

摘要

Faced with both internal and external threats and awash in petrodollars, Saudi Arabia has continued to allocate large sums of state spending toward defense and security matters, gradually bringing the country into the club of top five defense-investing nations. The country even briefly topped the list in 2014. Yet, while the Saudis are heavy defense investors, they often seem to be making large, expensive procurement purchases with little thought about how the selected platforms fit into their force structure and overall strategic plans. This seemingly uncoordinated approach to purchasing armaments is sometimes the product of placing the political ahead of the practical. For instance, the Saudis may purchase large numbers of a certain platform in order to curry favor with a foreign government over an external issue (such as purchasing U.S. platforms to alleviate political pressure on the Saudi state to initiate liberalizing reforms, or purchasing Russian ware as a quid pro quo for Moscow blocking sales of certain armaments to Iran). Overbuying - or purchasing more units than the armed forces have adequate workforce pools to properly crew and support - is a common Saudi procurement problem. Because of this, the Saudi military is left with excess equipment, much of which is parked in storage, where it is not adequately maintained. Notwithstanding the problem of equipment quantities outstripping workforce and logistical resources, two other problems concern the integration of different platforms and their absorption into the overall force structure. Proper training of personnel on new platforms also suffers in the process.